Venice Is Fed Up With Cruise Ships And Angry Protesters Are Blocking Them

Venice, which this year logged a new low of fewer than 55,000 inhabitants—down from 164,000 in 1931 – registers up to 30,000 cruise ship passengers tramping through the small, ancient city per day. World famous for its canals and gondolas, Venice is a major destination for Mediterranean cruises. More than 600 big ships pass through the Giudecca Canal each year, ferrying millions of passengers to views of the 15th century Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s Square and other architectural and artistic wonders.
The total of visitors per year is calculated to be almost 22 million, an overwhelming number considering the size of the fragile, salt-corroded the city, which has long required constant attention to keep it from sinking, literally.
Per day, the number of tourists is around 60,000 exceeding by 5,000 the number of Venetians which, in the words of UNESCO officials means that “the capacity of the city, the number of its inhabitants and the number of tourists is out of balance and causing significant damage to the city.” Read further at www.forbes.com/si...

"Seabourn Encore", the first of two ultra-luxury cruise ships that Fincantieri is building for Seabourn Cruise Line, brand of Carnival Corporation, was launched today at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Marghera (Venice).
The ceremony was attended, among others, by Mr. John Delaney, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Sales, while Fincantieri was represented by Antonio Quintano, the Marghera yard manager.
“Seabourn Encore”, due to join the Seabourn fleet in the end of this year, is being built according to the standards and technical solutions that make Seabourn one of the most prestigious brands in the ultra-luxury segment and will continue the fleet modernization that began in 2009.
The all-suite ship is approximately 41,000 gross tons, 210 metres long and 28 metres wide and will be able to reach a cruising speed of 18.6 knots. It will carry up just 600 guests, based on double occupancy. Every suite will feature a private veranda.
Safety will be one of this ship's major strong points. It will be built using the very latest technologies, whose standards will exceed the requirements of the relevant legislation. Fuel consumption will be significantly reduced by optimizing the ship's hydrodynamics.
Fincantieri has built 70 cruise ships since 1990 (of which 47 from 2002), and other 14 ships are currently being designed or built in the Group's yards.

North Adriatic ports should pool resources and develop an offshore terminal to allow mega-ship access, an Italian port official has said.
The solution was conceived by Paolo Costa, president of the Venice Port Authority, who announced it to the audience of the Marintec China conference. North Adriatic ports are currently only capable of handling vessels up to 7,600 20-foot-equivalent units, while northern European ports such as Rotterdam regularly handle mega-ships.
With the offshore terminal, Costa believes that Adriatic ports such as Venice, Chioggia, and Ravenna would not need to invest heavily to expand their port facilities separately. Instead, they can pool their resources for the construction of one offshore terminal in the Adriatic Sea to handle mega-ships.
“The offshore terminal model offers one call for mega-vessels as compared with the traditional model of multi-call of smaller vessels feeding the mega-ship,” Costa said. www.joc.com/port-...

Venice Port Authority has published the international tender for the drafting of the new port masterplan, which will set the basis for the port development up until 2050.
The masterplan’s goals include promoting a sustainable port system in the Venice lagoon, based on the new offshore terminal and its links with other onshore terminals, both in and out of the lagoon.
It will also promote private investment in line with the development of the whole region along with the deployment and strengthening of sea based worldwide import-export companies in Porto Marghera.
There are also plans to modify and rationalise both the whole port and the single terminals layout and fostering rail network to the hinterland for both environmental and market purposes. www.maritimejourn...

The challenge of protecting the ancient city of Venice from the sea has been a long saga. Increasing high tide levels within the sensitive Venice lagoon have seen many sections of the city flooded.
Work started on an ambitious project to enable the three inlets to the lagoon from the sea to be closed of by tidal barriers in the event of high tides and now the final stages of the project comprising the installation of the gates is being carried out.
Each of the three barriers comprises a series of modular gates that, when filled with water, rest on the seafloor. When high tides are forecast these hinged gates will be raised by filling them with compressed air. More to read at www.maritimejourn...

The European Union has granted EUR 9.7 million to Italy’s Port of Venice and Rimorchiatori Riuniti Panfido to co-finance the construction of the prototype of a Mama Vessel, a semi-submersible ship designed by England’s BMT Titron that will link Venice’s planned Offshore – Onshore port system. The Mama Vessel prototype is a part of the Poseidon Med II project, approved in 2014 under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) project, with a total budget of EUR 53.2 million. The EU funds will cover the final design and construction of the prototype Mama Vessel, or technically, Semi Submersible Barge Transporter. The Mama Vessels will have the capacity to transport two ‘cassettes’ of up to 384 teu from the offshore terminal to shore and vice versa, or by the use of two river barges which serve the Po River up to Mantova. worldmaritimenews...

The Italian Coast Guard ruling banning cruise ships over 96,000 tons from sailing through Venice’s signature channel has apparently been lifted, according to Italian media reports.
The degree banned big ships from sailing through the Guidecca channel.
The lifting of the ban may not affect traffic this year, as itineraries and deployment are already planned, but could play a factor starting in 2016.

New offshore cruise ship terminal in the Adriatic could resolve the debate over the gigantic liners that plough through Venice's lagoon. Venice is studying a new proposal for reducing the impact of the colossal cruise ships that enter its lagoon on a daily basis – the construction of an artificial terminal island in the Adriatic.
Cruise ship passengers would disembark on the man-made, 3,000ft-long jetty and board a fleet of catamarans which would ferry them into Venice.
Each catamaran would be able to take around 800 passengers, with the transfer to Venice's historic centre taking less than an hour.
The proposed solution would allow passengers to still experience the thrill of entering the lagoon by boat, but would satisfy the complaints of the many Venetians who say that the giant cruise ships are an eyesore, dwarfing the city's bell towers and palazzi as they lumber through the lagoon. Source and more to read at www.telegraph.co....

The entrance of Port of Venice/Porto Marghera will be closed from August 18th at 03.00 to August 25th at 00.01 hrs, GAC reports.
Port traffic will be suspended from August 18th at 03.00 up to August 18th at 07.00.
From August 18th at 07.00 up to August 25th at 00.01, transit will be allowed only through the lock chamber for vessel with the following dimensions:
Ro/Ro ships max 200 metres with working bow thruster
Cargo ships up to max 220 metres with working bow thruster and favourable current
Tankers ships max 170 metres with working bow thruster
From August 25th at 00.01 up to the start of positioning of structure MB-B04 (expected on September 2nd), transit will be allowed through the lock chamber for vessels within the above size limit and through channel for vessels over the above size limit with 2 tugs made fast and a maximum speed of 5 knots.

Big cruise ships will be barred from Venice’s Saint Mark’s lagoon, to protect Italy’s floating city from potential damage caused by growing traffic, the government said on Friday, Augzst 8, 2014, Reuters reports.
Venetians and environmentalists have long voiced concern about tourist vessels sailing close to the fragile city. Last November, Italy’s government started limiting traffic on the lagoon and the Giudecca canal, which flows into the lagoon between the main island of Venice and the island of La Giudecca to the south.
“The order by which in 2014 and 2015 no large ship weighing more than 96,000 tonnes will be able to enter Saint Mark’s lagoon and the Giudecca canal is back in force,” transport minister Maurizio Lupi said, describing the large ships as “skyscrapers of the sea”.
Politicians including Lupi, the prime minister’s chief of staff Graziano Delrio, culture minister Dario Franceschini and environment minister Gianluca Galletti met in Rome on Friday and agreed to implement a decree limiting the traffic.
The ministers commissioned an environmental analysis of the nearby Contorta-Sant’Angelo canal, which has been chosen as a possible alternative route for larger vessels to reach Venice’s maritime station.